Now That's Innovation News

Our brains can develop new habits and ways of looking at things at any age. In other words, you are the architect of how your brain is structured. The key is continuous learning, trying new things, and being aware of our thought patterns.

Creative leadership development is all about replacing a someone’s disempowering mindsets and action routines with empowering, creativity-inducing ones. While as a creative leadership coach, I can observe the actions of disciples, I cannot directly intercept their thoughts. Fortunately, however, I can get valuable hints about the thoughts of potential creative leaders by paying close attention to, and intently listening for, the words they regularly use.

Brand Connect is Asia’s leading independent brand management and distribution company for premium drinks brands in Asian markets. Founded in 2013, the company has moved to the second phase of the business cycle that focuses on strong growth: Brand Connect aims to become the number one choice for premium drinks brands eager to cover all key Asian markets with only one marketing & distribution partner. In November 2018, Brand Connect invited all staff from all offices and across all...

What comes to your mind when you hear the terms assets and liabilities? Most businesspeople think of a corporate balance sheet. But as a person, have you ever noticed that you have assets and liabilities, too?

Have you ever participated in an innovation project? Have you ever worked as a member of an innovation project team on an innovation case that your senior management deemed important? Did you enjoy the entire project experience?

It was fantastic to be a guest on the "Becoming Your Greatest Possible Self" 12-hour marathon podcast with Chris Burns. We talked a lot about the creative revolution that is happening with disruptive technologies. Lots of opportunities for those who know how to leverage their creative intelligence.

Managing people in the modern globalized workplace is like herding cats. Managers need to effectively relate to people’s unique personal styles and to different cultural, educational and generational backgrounds. That’s easier said than done.

Have you ever had a sales meeting where you were pitching a great product that really addressed your client’s need, only to be cast aside by your counterpart with the killer phrase: “Can you demonstrate to me how this improves our ROI (return on investment)?” Today, let me share with you how to deal with the “ROI request” in a productive way using the example of TIPS, Thinkergy’s innovation people profiling method. So, how can TIPS help you improve the ROI of ...

Have you ever heard of the expression “put the right man into the right job”? Bet you have. Given the wide popularity of this cliché, we can expect that most companies are doing a good job when hiring the right person for an open position, can’t we?

The World Economic Forum's "Future of Jobs Report" reveals the top 10 job skills required for workers to thrive by 2020. The top 3 skills are: complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. All of which can be trained using our methods.Click to see the full list. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/study-you-will-need-this-top-job-skill-to-succeed-in-age-of-robots-by-2020.html

Most people believe that robotic technology will put millions of people out of work. However, a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report suggest new technologies like robots in the workplace stand to create almost double the number of jobs 2025 than they risk replacing. About 133 million jobs globally could be created with the help of rapid technological advances compared with 75 million that could be displaced. This would have widespread ramifications to improve pay, living standards and r...

“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite”, noted the French post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin. Having produced more than 500 paintings in his 55 years of life, Gaugin clearly exemplified output focus at work. How does this compare to what’s going on in modern business? Nowadays, countless businesspeople are frantically busy at work.

In Part 1 of this two-article episode I introduced you to a variety of well-known personality tests or cognitive profiling methods. You may have already heard of —or even been tested in— tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Herrmann’s Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), DISC or the Enneagram. In today’s part 2, allow me to share how to scrutinize the underlying conceptual constructs and design architecture of a cognitive profiling method by answering the following questions: What con...

I recently came across this artlice by Dimis Michaelides on the impact of technology on the way we will live and work in the future. As he notes: "Ten years from now a good number of today’s jobs will not exist, a good number of entirely new jobs will be created and ALL jobs will change, many of them in significant ways."So what jobs does he feel will thrive? "Creative or problem-solving jobs (artists, scientists, business strategists), jobs involving complex personal r...

A few weeks ago, I participated and presented a paper at the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM)’s Innovation Conference in Stockholm. While listening to the keynote talks and academic paper presentations, actively participating in workshops and hot topic sessions, and observing the hustle and bustle of the conference, a thought suddenly struck me: “Innovation has come of age — both as an academic discipline and as a business service.” Why...

To what extent can businesspeople be developed into creative leaders through a structured creative leadership development method and a related experiential course pedagogy? And how can we verify if the chosen approach is valid both regarding its methodological contents and its pedagogical delivery? Together with my colleagues Brian Hunt and Xavier Parisot (IKI-SEA, Bangkok University), I investigated these research-guiding questions for a new research study titled “Creatively Developing Cr...

The 21st FIFA World Cup has kicked-off in Russia. As the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, the Football World Cup delights the lives of football fans around the globe for four weeks — mine included. While reading articles on the upcoming World Cup, I came across a range of football quotations that made me smile and realize: Succeeding in the FIFA World Cup with a national team is like successfully mastering an innovation project with your innovation team.

Nowadays, most companies embrace personality tests and cognitive profiling methods as a tool to learn more about their people. Clearly, there is no shortage of such profiling tests that range from classic typologies (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or the DISC concept) over more cognitively-inclined tools (such as Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument [HBDI] or Alan Black’s MIND Design Concept) to more recent additions such as Insights Discovery or TIPS Workshops. But have you...

In part 2 of this three article series, we discussed the “innovator’s dilemma” to better understand the challenges that the digitalization of business imposes on both established corporations and start-up ventures. We also explored strategies established firms can employ to successfully master digital transformation. In this third and final part, let’s consider eight game plans that start-up ventures may employ to drive digital transformation.1.

Two weeks ago, we discussed how a range of newly emerging, interconnected digital technologies (such as artificial intelligence, big data and the Internet of Things, among others) are predicted to profoundly change business and society. We explored how new technologies pass through different phases of the hype cycle before eventually producing meaningful, marketable applications. In Part 2 of this three episode article, let’s next discuss what challenges digital transformation places on both est...

Earlier this month, I followed an invitation to deliver a presentation on the topic “Mastering Digital Transformation: Challenges and Strategies for Brands and New Businesses”. It was a welcome opportunity to finally dig deeper into a “hot topic” that admittedly, I have largely avoided so far. Interestingly, what I read, pondered and actively processed has made me feel both uncomfortable and excited.

In less than three months, the FIFA World Cup in Russia will kick off. Chances are that after the final, not the national squad with the most glamorous star, but the one with the best team will lift World Cup. What’s true in football is true in business, too: great teamwork matters.

Digitization is one of the technological mega-trends in business. Humanity has not only moved into the innovation age, but more and more modern innovations include digital elements that allow for a better more meaningful user experience. Digitization is said to bring massive changes to business, and to discuss this fully would go beyond the scope of this article.

Kung Hai Fat Choy, Happy Chinese New Year! Tomorrow marks the start of the Year of the Dog, or to be more precise, the Brown Earth Dog. The dog was the first species that humans domesticated, and thanks to this long bond with humans.

In September 2018, Motivational Press will publish the first part of my book trilogy “Genius Journey. Developing Creative Leaders for the Innovation Economy.” At the moment, I update and refresh the copy that I originally drafted in 2013-14, and I see this also as an opportunity to simplify how I present key concepts of the Genius Journey method in my creativity and leadership book. So in simple terms, what is the Genius Journey Method?

A new year is always a new beginning in business and in innovation. In the coming months, many companies will start new innovation project initiatives. They will compose innovation teams assigned to work on specified innovation challenges, such as creating an innovative product, designing a better customer experience, exploring new distribution channels, or designing impactful promotional campaigns, among others.

Many books and articles about famous innovation leaders focus on and celebrate one of three archetypes: the geek who first embraced a new technology; the progressive creator who came up with a game-changing idea for a new product; or the storyteller who charismatically leads and promotes a firm’s products. But what if you have a cognitive style that differs from these glamorous innovation archetypes? How can you play on your unique talents and strengths to contribute to the innovation efforts of...

Genius Journey, the creative leadership development method that I’ve created, invites candidates to go on an imaginary journey where they travel to ten destinations to rediscover their inner creativity. At each destination stop, they learn about one disempowering mindset or action routine that limits their creativity, and they also get introduced to a corresponding empowering mindset that reconnects them to their inner creativity. At the 10th stop of Genius Journey, you need to s...

In part 1 of How Generational Shifts will Impact Business and Innovation, we discussed the concept of social generations and introduced those generations that are currently alive. Today, we will explore how the generations presently active in the workplace differ in their work aspirations, behaviors and styles, and how generational shifts that will unfold in the labour market in the next decade are likely to change the nature of business in general and innovation in special.Introducing the style...

In the coming decade, major generational shifts will take place in the workplace. Today and in two weeks, let’s understand more about the concept of social generations, how the socialization of different generational cohorts impacts the way they think, work, decide, communicate, manage and lead, and how generational shifts will affect the ways we do business and innovate.Background: Training a group of global nomadsIn April 2017, I had the pleasure of training a fascinating group of highly...

When you work with a team on an innovation project case, what matters is not only what kind of thinking tool you use when in the innovation process. To do sound thinking and produce adequate outputs, it also matters how exactly you use the tool — or in other words: how you communicate and interact with other team members while applying a particular tool, and how you capture outputs. Today, let’s learn more about the different communication styles that you can use while working on an ...

Take a moment to think about the following questions: What innovative companies do you know? What companies do you consider to be highly creative and innovative? What factors have made these firms become innovation leaders?

Around the time we entered the new millennium, humanity moved from information intensification into a new economic age: the age of creation intensification. In the innovation economy, the key competitive advantage of individuals, companies and countries alike is creation — the ability to use existing and newly emerging theories, know-how and technologies to create novel, original and meaningful value.In the coming two to three decades, creativity and innovation rule will be the key drivers...

Picture all the people at work with whom you regularly come into contact. If you’re like most people, your colleagues fall into one of four categories: Cool, okay, at times irritating, or really annoying. Now, what if you had a tool to better understand the dynamics behind conflicts at work, learn ways to handle them, and discover why the people who trouble you most should be your best friends?Background: How TIPS links to conflict at workTIPS is a new cognitive profiling tool that I&rsquo...

What do the state of the economy, a product, a corporate venture, a leading technology, the four seasons, and living things such as human beings have in common? All evolve and revolve in cycles, in “waves of change”. And as innovation means meaningful change, it often kick-starts a new cycle.

When companies pursued innovation in the past, they typically worked on one of two innovation types: product innovation (also called new product development) and process innovation. Over the last two decades, however, a compendium of modern innovation types has emerged that allow companies to play the innovation game in many new ways. But as with any other game, you need to follow a set of rules.

Albert Einstein once said: “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Sadly, many businesspeople are on career tracks where they feel like a fish being asked to climb trees. I used to be one of those people earlier in my professional career, before I discovered which work environment best fits my innate talents. But how about you? Do you work in a “hot” work environment that supports your natural abilities?

Wouldn’t it be great if all your new recruits fit perfectly into the vacant positions you wanted them to fill? And if everyone on a team worked in a role that allowed them to let their talents shine and played on their strengths, while others compensated for any weakness?Some of the hardest things to get right in business are staffing open positions and aligning the members of a team so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But what if there were a tool that allowed you to p...

In a recent Inc. article titled "Apple Proves That This Is The Single Greatest Source Of Innovation", author Thomas Koulopoulos stated that the greatest source of innovation wasn't a product. It was the experience.The Late Maya Angelou said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."Thomas suggests to think about that quote as it applies to your retail experiences.

What are the long-term impacts on learners who have taken training in structured innovation? What do they recall from the course? What is the long-term effectiveness of a systematic creativity training with regards to building-up creative confidence and creative confidence in learners?

Imagine a time machine brought you a few hundred years back in time to a feudal principality in the agricultural age. Upon your arrival, you’re randomly assigned to join one of three traditional social groups: farmers, clerics or warriors. You have to perform the duties associated with your newly assigned role.